NZ Bans Cigarette Sales for Those Born After 2009

New Zealand has adopted a steadily rising tobacco-purchase age and mandated the near-elimination of nicotine from all cigarettes sold in the country, pushing forward on a plan to create a smoke-free nation as other countries consider similar measures, Jennifer Maloney reports for The Wall Street Journal.

The law passed this month bans the sale of tobacco products in New Zealand to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009, so those who are age 13 or younger today will never be able to legally purchase tobacco in their lifetimes, Maloney writes.

New Zealand is “engaged in an extraordinarily important natural experiment to see if these significant policy approaches, which have not been implemented elsewhere, succeed in driving down cigarette smoking, as many experts think they’re likely to do,” said Clifford Douglas, director of the Tobacco Research Network at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Original article by Jennifer Maloney, The Wall Street Journal, December 14, 2022.

Photo by Reza Mehrad.